I really want to thank you all for you patience and understanding. I was so grateful for all the e-mails that I got sent. Please enjoy the ninth chapter of YuYu Hakusho is just a story.

Chapter nine: The Magician

The door closed behind Jen with a low, yet firm click. Fearing the worst, our hero took a foolish moment to pause and listen for the hurried scrapping of chairs and feet. But, as when she was thieving, there was nothing.

Our hero let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Now all that remained was the release of her teammates.

"Jen," Kit hissed from his cell. "are you well?"

Jen nodded her head quickly, then realizing he couldn't see it, voiced her affirmative. "Ya…I'm okay."

"Excellent!" The redheaded fox beamed.

Jen could practically hear the smile in his voice. A rush of satisfaction swept through her as she pushed herself away from the door and jogged the 10 feet to the cage. Once there she shoved the key into the lock and twisted.

A loud click shattered the quiet that seemed to surround the four, making Jen wince and the door slowly slide open. Our hero jogged in quickly and shut the door behind her.

---

Kit smiled and leaned back against the wall as she entered the cell. She spotted him and gave an excited grin.

"KIT!" She exclaimed happily and launched at him arms open.

Kit had just enough time to switch the position of his limbs before an ecstatic Jen wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest.

"Kit, I'm so glad I found you! I was so scared…" her voice trailed off, thick with emotion.

"Scared, of what?" He asked, relaxing into her welcomed embrace.

Jen lifted her head so she could look him in the eyes. "I…when they took you away I thought they'd kill you."

So did I, he thought silently before saying. "Lets not dwell on that, we have work to do." He squeezed her tightly for a moment before turning her around. "Hiei, Kuwabara, I would like you to meet Jennifer. "

The girl blushed as he introduced her.

Kuwabara, who had been surprisingly quiet throughout the theft and greeting, broke into a grin and extended a hand.

"Hi I'm Kuwabara, Kazuma worst punk at Sarayashiki Jr. High. You can call me Kazuma."

Jen stuck out her hand slowly. "H-Hi, Jen Fisher."

The teen took the offered appendage and, as he gave it a firm shake, continued to speak. "Over there's Hiei, he doesn't speak much and he's mean."

Jen blinked. "…right."

A thick snort of impatience erupted from the darkest corner of the room, followed momentarily by the dark Jagonshi himself.

Jen nearly gasped. Hiei was covered from top to bottom in blood, bruises and scratches. "M-my god…" She breathed quietly. Her gaze turned to kit. He sported a swollen eye along with blackened ribs. "What happened?"

"Mearly Skilt's hospitality." Kit answered quickly. "Now, we have another task for you." With a gallant wave of his hand, he ushered the stunned girl across the room. "Look up. Do you see those paper strips that line the ceiling?"

"Ya." Jen said, voice soft.

"Those keep us from accessing our spirit energy ."

"Alright, what do I do?" Jen asked.

"I'll lift you up and then you can climb along the beams that line the ceiling to disable those talismans."

"Beams? What be—oh, Kit, you have got to be kidding me." Jen groaned.

Our hero's heart sank when she saw the "beams" kit was talking about. They were more like thick cylindrical poles packed closely together to discourage climbing.

"I kid you not." Kit affirmed. "It will be a tight fit, but your small enough find purchase there. If you go carefully, you'll be able to reach any talisman."

Jen moaned and slapped her forehead.

The kitsune turned. "Kuwabara, give me you're pants."

"Say what!" The teen protested.

"Give me you're pants." Kit repeated calmly.

"What do you need 'em for." The gruff teen demanded and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"They are not for me." Kit chuckled and crossed his pale, muscular arms across his abdomen. "There for Jen." Kuwabara gave him a look that clearly read 'ya-so?' Kit tried again. "She's wearing a dress."

Something clicked behind Kuwabara's eyes as he got an indication of what kit was talking about. "Like I'd peek!" Kuwabara shouted, defending his honor. "Why don't you donate your own pants?"

Kit laughed. "I would have surrendered my own clothing, but demons don't wear underwear. Human teenagers do. Besides, Jennifer might have to hang herself upside down to reach some of those slips, I doubt Inari gave her undergarments."

Jens face turned three shades of pink. "KIT!" She hissed.

Kuwabara closed his eyes and grumbled softy.

"I don't need his pants!" Jen protested to Kit. " Besides, if I'm gonna hang from my knees, wouldn't it be safer to—"

Suddenly, a pair of pants were thrust between the two Kitsune. "Here take 'em."

"Thank you." Kit beamed.

Jen took the infamous-blue-school-pants from Kuwabara, too dumbfounded to do anything else. The light blue material was soft in her hands, proving itself to be well loved. Jen carefully extended her arms up and let the garment hang. It was still warm.

"The size issue may be a problem, but with a belt I'm sure they will fit alright." Kit mused and approached Jen to help her with the pants.

"—I can't wear Kuwabara's pants! He's a boy!" Jen gave her last desperate plea.

"Would you rather—what is the phrase—Moon him?" Kit asked.

Jen growled, defeated by modesty.

"Now, put them on so I can fix them for you."

With a sigh, Jennifer put on the pants and tried not to blush too hard. Meanwhile, Kuwabara turned his back and sulkily sank down to sit criss-cross-applesauce on the ground. Hiei watched the event with moody scarlet eyes.

As Jen fumbled with the material, Kit stepped behind her and grabbed the waist. With a quick tug he pulled the material as high as it would go. The black haired half-breed blushed again and looked to the side as the waist was pulled tight beneath her breasts.

"Alright." Kit muttered and removed the belt that encircled his own waist. Carefully he wound the long cloth around the girl and tied it tight in back with a bow. "How does that feel?"

Jen gave him an unhappy face. Kit laughed and asked. "Where is your tail?"

"Down the left pant leg." Jen answered. "Why?"

A tearing sound was heard, followed by kit fishing the emotionally distraught girl's tail through a new hole conveniently placed in the seat of Kuwabara's pants.

"MY PANTS!" Kuwabara bellowed, jumping to his feet and turning swiftly to the fox demon. "Wha'ya do that for?"

"Balance." Kit stated simply and bent down to check the hems on the bottom. "Besides, It'll be easy enough to fix. I tore on the seam." The fox took a moment to admire his handy work. "There, that should do it." He smirked. "Well, lets get you up there."

---

Kurama bowed lower as he relayed his encounter with Jen to Skilt. A few paces away, Skilt sat silently on his throne; drinking in every word that the fox uttered.

"Finally," Kurama concluded. "She told me that she would get me out; or I'd figure out how to do it myself. 'After all', as she informed me, 'I am Kurama."

Skilt's leather encased hand balled into a fist. "She lied." He hissed. "That damn kitsune bitch LIED to me!" Skilt brought his hand up to caress his creased eyebrows. "Well, that is to be expected. I would have been a fool not to believe she wouldn't turn on me." He continued, muttering more to himself then to anyone else. "I had hoped that she would have honored her bargain with me but…" The prince pushed down his dark sunglasses, revealing irises so dark that they seemed to suck all available light into their depths, hungrily devouring the purity. "…as they say, Kurama; We'll fix her little red wagon. Where did you say she was?"

Kurama lowered his eyes and took a breath before answering. Trying to stall as long as he was able. "She's in the dungeon, along with the other prisoners."

"How fitting, a pile of rats in the dungeon." He spat. The prince took a deep cleansing breath and lowered his sunglasses.

The kneeling redhead had a front row seat as the Vash wanna-be lifted his fingers to his temples . A look of concentration passed over the vampire's face and his power slowly began to rise. Orange whips of hair slowly began to flutter in a breeze that touched nothing else. Power filled the chamber with the force of a rising storm, making one wish they could pop their ears. The chi built in the room until it felt as the air was saturated and suffocating. When it became almost unbearable, the tension broke. With this release, Skilt's hells dark eyes shifted to snowy white. Every ounce of color drained; making the dark prince seem blind. Slowly Skilt's eyes moved, scanning the floor as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. His face creased into a scowl and he tore his hands down.

"Crafty little she devil!" The prince snarled as his eyes shifted back to their original color. "It seems she was able to get inside the cell. Heh, stole the key from right under that bounty hunter's nose. Damn, I haven't been as careful of her as I should have been." Skilt took off his gold circlet and ran the piece through his fingers as he thought. It seemed pretty obvious to him now that he had given her too much freedom. He had been hopping that she would have just surrendered to him. After all, she was nothing more than a scared human brat, then again, perhaps she hadn't been scared enough!

His attention shifted back to the kneeling redhead. "I want her brought to me as soon as possible. I need to change my plan; she's not cooperating."

Kurama pressed his torso flat against the cool, cool black marble that made up the audience chamber's floor.

"I'll be in my playroom. Oh, and bring Yusuke with you when you come." Skilt ordered.

Orders given, Kurama picked himself up and backed out of the room, head bowed in respect. Once out of the room he turned down a dark corridor to inform Jezebel, Lady of the dungeon, that Jen was to be taken to Skilt's Playroom.

---

Now, so far in our hero's story, we've found her in some pretty sad situations. But, none could compare to what she was going through now.

At this very moment, Jen found herself twenty feet off the ground clinging to a bar with both knees and one hand; and, to her alarm, that one hand was beginning to sweat rather badly. Making her already feeble grip become even worse.

With a squeak, Jen tore her hand away from the talisman she was about to rip off the wall and slammed it back onto the metal pole. She gulped audibly and took a moment to calm her fear. Below, Kit positioned himself more squarely underneath her.

"Okay." Jen breathed. Carefully she adjusted her legs so that she held the bar with her thighs a little more firmly. The dark haired girl then released the bar and wiped her hands on her dress. Once satisfied that her hands were now dry enough to hold onto the bar without slipping, she replaced her grip and leaned out towards the talisman once again.

"Be careful." Floated Kit's warning from below.

The silvery white fox watched with bated breath as the young woman positioned herself among poles. Carefully she reached out and grasped the corner edge of the slip. With a gentle flick of her wrist, she began to tug the paper off the wall.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kuwabara bellowed and grabbed his head. Blood spurted from his nose. His hands shifted to his bleeding appendage, unsure of how he was bleeding. His scream dulled to piteous moans.

Above him Jen held tightly onto the talisman that she had only meant to tug. There was a rush of commotion below her as Kit rushed over to the bleeding teen and inspected him.

"Kuwabara! Are you alright?" Kit demanded and knelt down to the teen.

Kuwabara brought up a hand and waved the concerned fox away. "Ya, ya. I'm fine. Just…" He spat onto the ground. "…Just peachy. What the hell happened?"

"I guess Jen can't remove them that way." Kit deduced aloud.

"Ch. You can say that again." Kuwabara grumbled painfully.

"A-are you alright, Kuwabara?" Jen asked gingerly.

"Ya. I'm fine, surprised me is all." He informed. "Heh…just do me a favor an' don't do that again. Okay?"

"Sure." Jen cast one last look at Kuwabara before placing the paper in her mouth and shifting her weight so that she swung back up onto the pole and could sit correctly. Jen took the slip out of her mouth and inspected it. The charm was about as long as her forearm and decorated in beautiful, long stroked kanji. Behind the symbols, about ½ inch from the top, were two long, thinly drawn ovals that stretched the entire length of the paper. Inside the inner oval was a lone flower that seemed to float directly in the middle, its petals delicately touching the sides of the inner oval. Her eyes flicked to the right side of the paper slip. Written in small kanji were letters that she thought she knew. On the left side, was a different set of kanji, but again they were familiar.

Jen looked up. Above her was the same type of charm, only this one had different lettering on the side. Kanji she knew instantly, because she had taught herself them as soon as she found out what they meant; and they spelled out the word Kurama.

"Kurama?" She whispered. Her eyes were drawn a little further away, to a different talisman. There, in the same corner as Kurama's name sat another set of Kanji. Again, these were ones she could pick out on sight. "Hiei." She breathed.

Her gaze shifted to Kuwabara, who at the moment was being nursed by Kit. She studied him for a moment, then her eyes turned back to the talisman in her hand. This one had to mean Kuwabara. And, judging by the way he had suffered when the talisman came off the wall, the only person who would sustain damage from having a talisman removed from the ceiling was the one who had his name scrawled onto the paper. But, there were so many talismans. If each person was affected the same way Kuwabara was—meaning they all suffered the same amount of blood loss and injury to the face as he had—she would probably kill them. Not to mention that the talismans probably didn't all affect the face. Many of them could be connected to say…the brain or heart. A blood burst like that would surly kill what ever internal organ they happened to spurt on. So, she couldn't remove them like that. There had to be another way; the only problem was that she didn't know what it was.

"You'll be alright." Kit said quietly to Kuwabara as he wiped a handkerchief out of one of his pockets and pressed it under the boys nose. "It looks like its already stopping. "

Kuwabara took the cloth away and nursed himself.

"Kit."

At the sound of his name, the silver fox turned and looked back up at Jen. The black kitsune was again hanging by her knees so that she could look down into his face. "If I cant take these down without hurting you guys, what am I supposed to do?"

"You are a magic kitsune, meaning that those talismans fall under your expertise. You should be able to remove them." Kit brought a hand up to stroke the underside of his chin. "Perhaps you could use your youki to find out how to remove them." He offered.

"Great!" Jen beamed. "How do I do that?"

Kit closed his eyes as his ears flattened back against his head in disappointment. He had forgotten that he was supposed to have taught her how to use her youki on the way over. Of course, if things had gone according to plan, they would probably have gotten here two days later.

"You have no idea how to use your youki?" A dark and sarcastic voice spat.

"No." Kit informed with a sigh. "She has the basics, but she didn't have enough time to learn the skills needed to master them."

Hiei cursed thickly. "What does she know?"

"She drew a weapon once. But that was when Inari's power was running through her; thus making the art of manipulating energy extremely easy. Now that she's here, Inari's power has faded away and she must access her energy on her own."

Hiei growled and leaned back against the wall.

Jen's ears settled down on her head as the darkest member of team Urameshi grew irritated at her incompetence.

Kit turned his attention to Jen. "Jen, how much do you know about youki?"

Jen screwed up her face in thought. "Well…" she began. "The show doesn't really tell much about it. But in fan fiction, they say that youki is the demon equivalent of Reiki."

Kit nodded. "That is correct. Do you know how to summon it?"

"Never tried."

Kit nodded his head in thought. "Well, I suppose that now would be as good a time as any to instruct you."

---

It didn't take as long as anyone suspected to teach Jen how to manipulate her youki. It seemed that the first time she had drawn her weapon, had given her enough of an idea on how to call her power. One hour of Hiei's silent observations, Kit's general instruction and Kuwabara's attempt at teaching, Jen had enough know-how to try and read a talisman with her magic.

"Now, lets try what we've been talking about on a talisman!" Kit called.

Jen placed the talisman she had been holding for the past hour onto the pole in front of her.

"Now, as we've practiced earlier, I want you to inject you're ki into it, and tell me what the talisman 'says'."

Jen nodded and moved her hand so that it hovered over the paper strip. As per their instructions, Jen searched deep inside herself for that one place where she was forever calm. A spot, about where her heart was, that was different from everywhere else. A place that she knew that was hers and hers alone.

With her mind she grasped a piece of that gentle calmness and pushed it down her right arm. She could feel it slowly working its way down, a warm reluctant piece of orange light that was unaccustomed to moving. When the feeling had reached her fingertips, Jen shoved out with her mind. Mentally seeing the orange glow enter the paper slip. She was vaguely aware of somebody saying 'its working', or 'good job'. But she wasn't sure and didn't care. All her attention was focused on the paper strip. Hoping it would 'talk' to her.

The paper didn't so much as talk to her as reveal its secrets. It was as If forcing her youki into the strip had triggered some instant recollection. Jen felt as if she had always known how to destroy these binding scrolls, but she knew that she had never possessed this knowledge before. The urge to test this new enlightenment was so powerful that Jen had found herself again calling upon her energy before she had even realized that she was doing so. That warm, amber orange light again made its way down her arm, accompanied by a word.

Our hero's arm slowly pulled back away from the scroll, as she moved Jen forced her hand to flex as straight as the muscles would allow. Once her arm was pulled back as far enough away Jen let that word bubble from her lips in the form of a command.

"Release!" She commanded, as she uttered this word her arm shot forward and buried itself elbow deep inside the paper scroll. The surface of the binding talisman rippled like water. Instantly, the kanji that decorated the slip began to glow, soft cream at first—then a blinding white as Jen forced her ki to tear the spell binding her teammates apart. Something clicked behind her eyes and the kanji burned away in a flash of white. Immediately Jen forced her arm free of the talisman, ignoring the sucking sensation that tried to grab hold of her arm and pull her the rest of the way inside the ruined strip. With a grunt of triumph Jen's hand pulled free of the paper. Leaving nothing but a harmless scrap of blank scroll.

"EXCELLENT WORK!" Kit congratulated from below her. "Now, it shouldn't be too hard for you to get the rest!"

"No prob!" Jen called back. They had a plan! Finally, for once things were going right!